I was wondering how you guys untie a fly from your leader and put a new one on. Do you just cut the fly off or do you untie the knot and then tie a new fly on. I don't want to cut off snips of my leader off just to use different flies and I have trouble undoing the knot. Any help and advice would be appreciated, thanks.

You can undo your knot? Wow, I think everybody here will tell you they snip it off. It's part of fishing. Now, if I am nymphing and using more than one fly, the fly farthest up the leader is a pattern that I have a lot of confidence in. This will allow me to keep it on as long as possible. However, if you don't have a fly like that, learn to tie that fly off the tag end of the tippet material you tied onto your leader. I usually will tie on a prince nymph or stonefly there.

Posted on: 2012/8/14 19:16

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Heritage-Angler wrote:Snip the leader off as close to the knot as possible. Yes, you'll eventually use up the leader doing this, but you can restore the length by adding tippet.

Tippet is the "thin" end of the leader, and you can buy spools of it to match the tippet on the end of your leader.

That's what you do.

I started adding this little step to my snipping the fly off procedure. I make 2 snips. The first snip is just a little bit back from the knot. (A little, like 1/16 inch.) Then I cut the knot off the fly.

The reason for doing this, rather than just snipping the knot, is to have straight tippet at the end to thread on a new fly, rather than that little curly end that makes it hard to thread the new fly on.

It helps a little bit when your eyes aren't so great and you're threading tippet through the eye of a small fly.

When you eventually take a foot or so of your leader off then tie on some "tippet". Use a blood knot and you're good to go. I think many newbies think about the same thing as you and just replace the whole leader rather than just adding tippet.

To be clear, when they say, "cut the leader" they are actually talking about cutting the tippet. You should never cut the leader. I could be wrong but perhaps the leader, along with the tippet is technically the entire leader. I don't know. But calling the tippet end the leader was confusing at first. You tie your fly to the tippet and that's what should be clipped when removing it.

Posted on: 2012/8/15 11:34

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pcray1231 wrote:I use regular, not improved, clinch knots, and I have to admit I often do untie them. Simply put the knot between fingernails, and slide up. It re-elongates the knot and pulls right out.

Of course, the end piece of mono is twisted up and needs to be snipped back anyway. I don't know why I do it.

I don't know why I do a lot of the things I do either.... lol.

I was surprised to read this. I have a good friend who doesn't improve his clinch knots either. I found out about this one day at the Lack after he broke off two fish in a row... I busted his balls enough that he started tying the improved and had no further issues. Maybe it was just him. But I do see how one could undo a regular clinch knot... Passing the tag through the extra loop is what really locks it down.

I'm kind of anal with my knots - I make sure every twist is stacked up nicely when I cinch it down.

ryguyfi wrote:When you eventually take a foot or so of your leader off then tie on some "tippet". Use a blood knot and you're good to go. I think many newbies think about the same thing as you and just replace the whole leader rather than just adding tippet.

Ryan

That's a very good point. I remember starting out, and being confused about this too, and I've seen this with many beginners.

For those doing instruction of new flyfishers, what this points up is the importance of teaching newbies about this. About what tippet spools to carry, and a good knot to use for adding tippet, and how to rebuild the end of your leader so that it works, i.e. turns over your fly.

This is among the most important things to learn right away, but maybe it's overlooked somewhat in flyfishing instruction?